Let's Go Back
Han Yi-hyeon sealed the monster—still thrashing even after its head had gone flying—inside an illusion and pressed on.
Do Geon hovered in midair, honing the wind to a razor edge as he kept watch over the battlefield. Unlike Han Yi-hyeon, who tore across it at blistering speed, he was comparatively at ease.
…….
Watching the two monsters fight, the onlookers could only stare, slack-jawed with awe.
What the pair did transcended the bounds of humanity; it looked less like combat than a performance of art. Such was the power of an Esper's ability to captivate.
Seo Joo-hwan was no exception.
He swallowed hard at the sight of Do Geon in battle for the first time in ages—and only then, belatedly, remembered that he was supposed to be getting Baek Yeo-eul to safety.
"Ah...!"
He whipped his head around to find Baek Yeo-eul half-conscious.
Seo Joo-hwan hurriedly carried her to the farthest spot he could find, and a flicker of life returned to her pale face.
"Y-you okay?"
Baek Yeo-eul wanted to tear every last hair out of Seo Joo-hwan's head. No matter how many times she'd called and shaken him, he hadn't so much as twitched—and only when she was already kicking at hell's doorstep, seconds from blacking out, had he finally dragged her away.
"Wa...ter..."
She'd meant to at least moisten her bone-dry mouth. But her voice was one percent sound and ninety-nine percent air, and Seo Joo-hwan apparently never heard it; he did nothing at all.
Baek Yeo-eul strained to reach out her hand, hoping to at least snag his sleeve. She was inches away—
"Department Head! We've got casualties and no one to administer first aid—"
Someone materialized out of nowhere and hauled Seo Joo-hwan off, leaving Baek Yeo-eul with not a single soul beside her.
Damn it.
Baek Yeo-eul muttered under her breath.
That wretch Seo Joo-hwan. I never liked him, not since the day he tried to blackmail me.
Unfortunately, there wasn't another person in sight, which left her no choice but to lie there and wait for Seo Joo-hwan or Han Yi-hyeon to finish the job and come back.
"Hm? Dead, is she?"
A voice murmured from somewhere near her head. Baek Yeo-eul, who had shut her eyes to conserve what little strength remained, felt her lashes tremble.
Because she didn't have the strength to answer.
"No... alive, then."
The flat, indifferent tone even sounded faintly disappointed.
"Can't be helped. Dying now isn't part of the plan."
It was the tone of someone doing her a great kindness. Then something cold brushed against her lips. Baek Yeo-eul realized it was a finger. The cold finger parted her lips and slipped something inside.
A pill? A capsule?
Before she could work out what it was, she swallowed.
"See you soon."
With a soft laugh, the voice faded into the distance.
And Baek Yeo-eul passed out.
"Why did you leave that one alive?"
Han Yi-hyeon asked as they tracked the last remaining monster's trail. At the end of his gaze lay a creature wriggling with its head and all four limbs severed.
"The Research Director says he needs a Grade 2 monster."
"Alive?"
Instead of answering, Do Geon ground his boot down on the monster's severed head at his feet.
Grade 2 monsters regenerated at terrifying speed, and so long as even a single nerve stayed alive—whether in a leg or an arm—they could regrow their entire body from it. Which was why destroying every nerve in every severed piece was the delicate crux of an exacting operation.
Worse still, those nerves could migrate, which made speed every bit as critical.
"Three o'clock."
Do Geon murmured it, still grinding out the last of the nerves beneath his heel. Han Yi-hyeon was already hurling himself in that direction. The moment the monster—lurking in hiding, biding its time for an opening—was caught inside the illusion he had woven, its body went rigid.
"Kieeeek!"
At the shriek, shrill enough to split ears, Do Geon glanced over briefly. Han Yi-hyeon dodged the spit the monster desperately hurled at him as he methodically burst its nerves one by one.
Han Yi-hyeon ran the numbers.
Twenty minutes—that was how long it had taken to kill two of the three Grade 2 monsters and capture the third alive.
"Finish destroying the core within ten minutes."
"Hold on."
Han Yi-hyeon turned to head into the dungeon, but Do Geon stopped him.
"The Research Director wants one more thing."
When no answer came as to what that might be, Han Yi-hyeon turned his head—and found Do Geon gazing intently at something. It took no effort at all to work out who he was looking at.
"...Do Geon."
"He's come with an offer. The answers to the Gate anomalies, solved within five years—in exchange for handing over Guide Baek Yeo-eul as a test subject."
"Do Geon!"
In an instant, Han Yi-hyeon's ability surged out in every direction. It swelled as though to swallow Do Geon whole—then stopped dead. A blade of wind, honed razor-sharp, rested just beneath his jaw.
"You—"
"It's not a booster."
Knowing full well that the slightest movement would see him sliced apart by the wind, Han Yi-hyeon let out a hollow laugh anyway.
"Which is why I intend to make you an offer of my own."
Do Geon regarded the monster's twitching nerves with indifferent eyes.
"One you'll have no choice but to accept. One with Baek Yeo-eul's life riding on it."
Their gazes locked. Even as the wind blew and scattered their hair, neither of them looked away.
It was Han Yi-hyeon who broke the silence first.
"...Do as you like."
Do Geon's eyebrows twitched.
"I don't care."
Ha. A thin sigh burst from Do Geon's lips. He looked Han Yi-hyeon over as though the man were utterly absurd.
"Do you honestly believe a lie that transparent is going to fool me?"
Even a flawless performance would have fallen short; Han Yi-hyeon's current acting, riddled with holes, was nowhere near good enough to slide. And that strangled voice would read as barely leashed fury to anyone with ears.
"It's not a lie—"
"Is that so?"
Do Geon cut him off cleanly.
"Then I take it you wouldn't care if Baek Yeo-eul died."
Do Geon lifted the monster sprawled at his feet into the air. Han Yi-hyeon's shoulders flinched—whether or not he'd caught on to what Do Geon intended.
"This monster will reach Baek Yeo-eul in the time it takes to blink. Shall we stand here and watch, then?"
"……."
"Watch her writhe in agony as she dies."
Silence fell once more. And once more, it was Han Yi-hyeon who broke it.
"...Fine. Tell me. These conditions of yours."
It had been a meaningless contest of wills with the ending written from the very start—which was why Han Yi-hyeon's surrender didn't taste purely sweet.
Do Geon wasn't dissatisfied with how neatly things had unfolded according to plan, but Han Yi-hyeon's behavior left a bad taste in his mouth.
Do Geon had never understood Espers who groveled after Guides. It was pathetic. It was filthy.
He'd been certain Han Yi-hyeon felt exactly the same way and rejected guiding on principle—right up until a C-rank Guide named Baek Yeo-eul appeared and ruined everything.
The sight of him—growling like a dog bursting for a dump the moment anyone so much as touched Baek Yeo-eul, then turning around and whining and fawning, desperate for her—scrambled Do Geon's composure.
I'm different. I will never end up like that.
Resolution sealed, Do Geon crossed his arms at his leisure.
"Those conditions are—"
"Kyaaaaaah!"
A scream tore across the space. Do Geon and Han Yi-hyeon turned toward its point of origin at the same moment.
It had come from unmistakably outside the perimeter.
Then why...
"A m-monster!"
Had a monster appeared?
When Baek Yeo-eul came to, she couldn't believe what was unfolding before her eyes.
A monster had broken through the perimeter.
The translucent membrane that formed the barrier was one of the most advanced technologies in existence—nothing short of a Grade 1 monster could punch through it. But the thing wreaking havoc over there was, without question, a Grade 2.
Baek Yeo-eul scrambled her body upright, ready to run.
"Save me! Please, somebody save me!"
Running and leaving screaming people behind was not a selfish act. It had been drilled into them again and again during training, and the general public knew it just as well.
If you meet a monster you cannot beat, don't do anything reckless. Run. No matter what.
At first, no small number of people had pushed back—how could anyone abandon a living person and flee? But once they understood that facing a monster made escaping alive difficult even on your own, everyone followed the rule.
Baek Yeo-eul, a C-rank Guide who struggled to protect so much as her own skin, had survived countless crises this way.
I can make it.
Fortunately, she was tucked away in a corner, and the odds of slipping away unnoticed were decent. But as it's been said: when God made Baek Yeo-eul, He threw in misfortune.
Krik. Krik.
And quite a lot of it. Far too much.
Kriiik.
"……."
Baek Yeo-eul forced her frozen neck to turn. There stood a Grade 2 monster, staring straight at her.
Click. Click. Sharp teeth knocked together.
Her eyes darted frantically, searching for Han Yi-hyeon. The figure she finally managed to spot was still over by the Gate.
Screwed.
The strange thing was that although the monster's antennae moved busily, it didn't close in. In that moment of extremity, Baek Yeo-eul dredged up the traits of Grade 2 monsters she'd learned in training.
Their eyes were blind.
But their hearing was so acute they could catch the faintest sound. Fortunately, the screams erupting on all sides looked as though they would do her escape a great favor.
Baek Yeo-eul swallowed hard.
Just in case, she scooped up a serviceable stone, then began moving one careful step at a time—slow, wide-strided—avoiding any ground that might crackle underfoot, holding her breath.
Krik. Krik.
Sensing something, the monster twitched its antennae more restlessly than before and cocked its head.
Damn it.
The sheer grotesquerie of it—a thing stitched together from human proportions and every insect imaginable—tilting its head and mimicking human gestures churned bile up her throat.
Having forgotten entirely that someone was running toward this spot, Baek Yeo-eul poured every nerve she had into the monster.
Thud.
Just then, the man sprinting toward her kicked a stone he hadn't noticed, sending it rolling. The monster's head whipped around—and he came face to face with its glistening eyes.
"Huaaagh! There's a m-monster here, here too—!"
"Wait, quiet—!"
The man, blundering onto the scene in a panic, bellowed before Baek Yeo-eul could shush him.
"Kieeeek!"
The man's head left his body and hit the ground in an instant. Blood spattered—splat, splat—across Baek Yeo-eul's face. The familiar reek of gore wormed its way into her nose.
Krik. Krik.
The man had appeared from behind her, and the noise had given away her position. The insect eyes were locked squarely on her now.
[—go.]
[Let's go.]
The monster's antennae stopped dead. Then it extended one of its four slime-smeared arms toward Baek Yeo-eul.
[Let's go back.]